Posts tagged ‘gas’

Russia’s recent win at the World Trade Organization against the EU’s efforts to diversify its gas supplies has come too late to stop Eastern Europe gaining access to non-Russian supplies, even if the EU loses its appeal against it.

The EU will likely have time to adopt a fourth “projects of common interest” list, due in late 2019, before any final WTO ruling requiring it to change its selection rules becomes binding.

Is blockchain gaining a foothold in the energy sector? The last two years witnessed a boom in projects around commodities trading and logistics using distributed ledger technology, but the pilots proved slow to move on from proof of concept phases.

That might be changing, with two industry-backed blockchain projects in the energy sector now gathering momentum.

Predicting what Libyan crude production will be in a few months’ time can be even trickier than forecasting the oil price itself. And the risks it faces could multiply as the country – which holds the largest oil and gas reserves in Africa – moves towards critical elections in December.

Libya’s recent rise in production has confounded even the most pessimistic of analysts. In mid-September, Libyan oil production surged to more than five-year highs of 1.28 million b/d, according to Mustafa Sanalla, chairman of the state-owned National Oil Corporation.

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For the residents of the surrounding region, the production of gas from the Dutch Groningen field has turned into a never-ending nightmare, with the continued threat of serious earthquakes creating a climate of fear.

“It was like a bomb going off,” one resident said following the 3.4-magnitude earthquake that hit Groningen on January 8.

For the first time since Donald Trump was inaugurated president, more of the benchmark commodity prices tracked by S&P Global Platts since he took office are now slightly higher than when President Obama left. Until November, most prices had struggled to see their averages match — or surpass — the levels on the last day Obama held the office.

Natural gas in the Netherlands remains a divisive issue, with the public perception of the once much-favored fuel turning increasingly negative because of the damage caused to buildings by producing gas at the super-giant onshore Groningen field.

It was the job of the country’s top administrative court this week to rule on whether the previous Dutch government’s policy to cap gas production from Groningen was adequate or whether the risk of further earthquakes in the area from gas drilling had been underplayed — or potentially worse, not properly assessed.

November is upon us and temperatures across the US are beginning to fall as oil prices rise to year-to-date highs. Looking at the average 12-month forward curve for WTI, oil prices rose to $54.19/b in early November, an increase of $2.62/b month over month.

It has been a little more than nine months since President Donald Trump took office, and although most hard commodity prices are lower than the day he was sworn in, there are signs of life.

For the first time since July 2, 2015, the price of Dated Brent — driven by strong demand — topped $60/b in late October, pushing its running average during the Trump presidency to $52.28/b. That’s still below the price of Dated Brent the day before Trump took the oath of office — $53.31/b on January 19 — and almost 38% below the $83.63/b average during Barack Obama’s two terms.